Alternate ending to Barricade's carrying period 2
by Rangerfan58
Summary: alternate scene to upcoming story and snippets of afterwords. profile explains how i choose to rate things. Mpreg due to experiment


_This is another brief alternate scenario starting from right after the revelation of his carrying triplets to the medical team. Oh and as for the time difference in the upcoming main story and this alternate story has a simple explanation, Barricade was more stable in the main story thus allowing the two medics to take their time with everything, while in this story Ratchet and First Aid had to act more quickly in order to attempt to save his life_

Barricade pushes another four times and indeed had triplets, after his third sparkling he finished it up with the afterbirth only a minute later and was completely and totally exhausted by that point immediately entering recharge stasis, however because of that no one would know that just as Barricade had finished pushing his third sparkling out of his body he felt like something had ripped apart in his chest until it was too late The triplets were put into Cybertronian incubators for their own safety since this was the first time that a protoform had been grown inside a Cybertronian

"How did we miss triplets...and just how dangerous was his birthing?"

"Very dangerous, it would have been safer to do a c-section, not sure if you noticed but the monitors were starting to show him being unstable near the end, as for how we missed triplets...well it happens even with human pregnancies"

"I noticed, thought it was just the stress of giving birth like a human would...guess I'm keeping all four of them under observation for a few days"

"Not a bad idea actually, we'd like to also monitor the situation the entire time he's stuck here...just in case"

"No problem with me"

"And by the way, when we say starting to become unstable, we mean that he was on the verge of us telling you to start preparing for a c-section in three hours if he either remained in his current condition or slowly started to get even worse"

"That I didn't notice, I only noticed it as he was...bearing down I believe you call it with the first sparkling"

"Well like I said, it would have been better for us to just do a c-section instead, not just because of the fact that it was triplets but because of his and their very health being at risk right at the point of being dilated enough to push, as it was we were watching very closely to see if the other one needed a c-section when he declared he needed to push again once his first was out"

"Fortunately it didn't happen"

"But it could have, now then I believe you have some people waiting to hear word on Barricade and the sparklings"

"Right, by the way how long did his labor take?"

The doctors look at the clock and are slightly surprised at how long it had taken for the sparklings to arrive once labor had progressed to the point that Barricade could actually give birth to his sparklings

"Thirty and a half hours, the initial thirty hours waiting for him to be dilated enough and then another half hour for him to actually give birth to his children"

"Understood, geeze, that's long even for you humans"

"Yes...it is"

Ratchet then goes outside to a waiting crowd and is suddenly very thankful that the medbay was soundproofed

"How are they Ratchet?"

"Barricade is weak and need to be kept a close eye on for a few days, we also discovered a little surprise...it turns out that Barricade was carrying triplets, the spark split during the time it would have into three without anyone noticing it, all four of them will be in the medbay until I release Barricade at the very least, but so far the triplets are doing fine"

"Triplets?...oh boy three times the trouble, and we need two more cribs"

"Yes, and by the way, he just endured a thirty and a half hour ordeal which is why he's so weak and tired, no one is allowed in until tomorrow at the earliest"

Korra herself was in shock and that was saying something due to how used to the fact she had gotten in regards to Barricade's pregnancy. Five hours later First Aid and Ratchet were fighting for Barricade's life and worried about the sparklings at the same time since they knew that the sparklings could feel what was happening to their carrier. Barricade had continued to be weak but steady in the first four hours when suddenly four and a half hours after the birth of the triplets he crashed and he crashed hard, they almost lost him before even getting him into surgery and neither had time to inform the Primes or Galvatron of the new situation it had happened so fast. The human doctors were there at the time of Barricade's crash due to them also doing a check up and were doing their best for the sparklings. Back when this had first started they had been informed everything that Ratchet and First Aid could think of about Cybertronian pregnancies and had discovered that sparklings _could_ survive the breaking of a carrier bond and that the reverse was true, but _only_ under specific circumstances including having spark support and medics nearby when the break with a dying carrier happened, and even then medics weren't always successful if the break was too sudden or medics were too far away. Even if the break wasn't sudden the age of the sparklings also played a role in survival and with them being hours old they were at high risk of dying if they also lost Barricade even with the support of medics and the spark support

"Doctor what will we do if..."

"The best we can...if we lose all four of them...than at least we tried, that's all medics can do at the end of the day, our best"

"Do the Primes and Galvatron know what's happening?"

"Considering just how fast everything happened most likely not, and we're unable to tell them ourselves since we're busy doing our best to support the sparklings"

An hour later Rodimus was at the medbay to get an update on Barricade (Ratchet had decided that the Primes and Galvatron would get hourly updates due to Barricade's weakened condition after learning just how precarious it truly was from the human medics) since it was late when he noticed only the human medics, and then he noticed the empty bed that Barricade was supposed to be on and missing medics

"Guys...where's Barricade, Ratchet and First Aid?"

"They're...First Aid and Ratchet are in surgery...about an hour and a half ago Barricade starting crashing...hard, the two barely stabilized him for surgery and they've been going at it ever since"

"I see...I'll inform Optimus and Galvatron then, do your best for the sparklings if we lose Barricade?"

"Of course"

Fifteen hours after the marathon surgery started Ratchet came out alone to the waiting group and by the way he was walking they knew it wasn't good news

"He's stable, barely but he's stable, unfortunately we could still lose him at any moment, he's on the human version of life support...normally what spark support is is us keeping a spark stable enough for surgery but the patient is...breathing for lack of another word on their own still, we've had to take over his entire automatic functions, breathing and keeping his spark going, the sparklings aren't doing much better since they can feel what's happening to their carrier, but they're simply on spark support at the moment and even then spark support doesn't have much to do to keep them stable. Primes, Galvatron I need Barricade sent to Cybertron as soon as you can get it arranged, we have equipment there that's not available on Earth due to spacing issues, basically Cybertron's the best chance Barricade has to survive...if we don't get him home soon..."

"How soon Ratchet?"

"Preferably five hours, after that..."

"Understood Ratchet, we'll..."

Suddenly First Aid bursts out of the medbay and whispers urgently to Ratchet who runs back in without a word. Another three hours later both medics are outside the medbay with their demeanor not having improved one bit

"He's gone...life support failed and he started crashing on First Aid while I was giving my initial report...we tried everything we could to save him but it just wasn't enough, turns out that there was internal bleeding that everyone missed even in surgery, not that it would have been easy to detect even by our scanners, he basically bled out in front of us...Barricade died at 0300 hours, his sparklings are in critical condition but have so far survived the traumatic breaking of the carrier bond...if they can survive a week than they'll be okay to be sent to a foster family on Cybertron, normally I wouldn't hesitate to keep them here but it's actually safer to send them to our home planet than to keep them here even with relative peace"

"We understand Ratchet...you and First Aid did your best, for now get some sleep, you need it desperately I'm sure"

"Yeah...we do, get Hook from Cybertron immediately to take over for us, Wheeljack and Perceptor are in charge until then"

The next day Ratchet and First Aid decided to do a preliminary autopsy to see if there was anything they could have done to save Barricade's life, and that's when they made the discovery. First Aid was the one doing the autopsy for the most part when suddenly he called out

"Ratchet...you need to see this"

Ratchet goes over and then sees what had startled First Aid

"Sacs...full of Energon...he...Barricade he...he would have been able to feed his sparklings himself"

"What...what are we going to do about this Energon?"

"We give it to his sparklings...it might...it might help keep them alive...trigger feeding protocols"

"It's worth a try anyways...they're so weak...I fear we're going to lose them if we don't try something...besides, it might have more nutrition than normal sparkling Energon"

Ratchet and First Aid carefully remove the Energon from the sacs in Barricade's chest and then give it to the triplets hoping that it wasn't too old, or too late to be effective. The next day they were finally able to explain what had happened to Barricade without passing out from exhaustion. Their human colleagues were also there since they had been by Barricade's side the entire time he was in labor

"Ratchet...First Aid...what happened?"

"As you know we had to keep a close eye on Barricade due to how dangerous his giving birth to the sparklings the way he did actually was. For four hours he remained stable and then half an hour before I was going to give you guys an update he crashed. We thought we had taken care of the problem which was internal bleeding from his abdomen cavity when the sparklings separated from him, because just like humans while there may not be a lot of loss of blood for them and Energon for us during birth there could be small leaks that are undetected until it starts to become dangerous. There were a _lot_ of leaks that needed taken care of, but when I gave my report I thought we'd had him stable. Unfortunately what I had failed to detect was a spark that had been weakened over time by carrying all three triplets without the knowledge that they were in fact triplets, that combined with the experiments made natural birth very dangerous"

First Aid decided to take over knowing that Ratchet was reaching his breaking point again

"While I was finishing up making sure that he was relatively stable for transport to Cybertron on the life support machine his spark started to fail, I naturally called Ratchet back after making sure that a human medic was with him in case his spark needed started again while I was away. When we opened his chest to actually look at his spark to see what had caused it to fail we saw a combination of a cracked spark casing and broken Energon lines leading to his spark. Ultimately it was the cracked spark casing that lead to Barricade's death, some of the casing actually got into his spark making it more unstable than usual and while we were getting the casing out of his spark it started to go on us. Even with the Energon lines fixed and back on his spark casing his spark stopped on us while we were working on the casing removal. That happened to us fifteen different times over the three hour period. We lost him one last time once the final piece was removed and we had fixed his casing to the point that it would support his spark, weaker though it would have been. He would have been able to continue fighting if he wanted but would have been forced to have checks after every battle. Unfortunately we were unable to bring him back that last time and you know the rest of the story"

"Yes, you came out dejectedly and declared him dead, what about the sparklings?"

"Still stable as far as we're aware, again it's a waiting game, but if they survive the week we can safely say that they'll grow up with a foster family excluding any unforeseen circumstances while they grow up"

"Understood, once you tell me that the sparklings are able to go to Cybertron I will make arrangements to have them sent through the space bridge, a foster family has already been selected and are simply waiting to be told that the sparklings are safe to come home with them"

"You'll know immediately sirs...sirs there's one more thing I think you should be aware of...I think...I think Barricade knew somehow that he might not make it, he made me promise to ensure that his little ones were cared for. I dismissed him and said that it was normal exhaustion in protected labor, it's my fault he's gone...I missed the signs he was giving me that something was seriously wrong"

Ratchet's human colleagues speak up then

"If you missed the signs than so did we...we were right by his side the entire time and didn't even catch the signs that he was weakening until he was almost ready to deliver the sparklings naturally himself, we may not have caught the conversation you two had since it was quietly done between you, but we should have been keeping a closer eye on his monitors the moment we realized he was in protracted labor. Either that or we should have forced the issue and insisted on you giving him the drugs he would have needed to undergo a c-section"

"I declare everyone innocent of Barricade's death...you may have dismissed his conversation Ratchet, and everyone may have missed the subtle signs that his condition was dangerously weakening him, however at the same time this was an abnormal situation for our species and as such normal human signs may not have been given or noticed until it was too late"

"Primes, Galvatron...there's something you should know, something we discovered during the preliminary autopsy"

"What is it?"

"Barricade...would have been able to feed his sparklings himself, we discovered sacs of Energon in his chest...about the same area as a human female's breasts as far as we could tell"

"How come this was missed during his carrying period?"

"Not sure, but it's most likely because we weren't looking for it since we were basically flying blind as the humans say"

"Understood...what's been done with the discovered Energon?"

"We gave it to his sparklings...hopefully it will help stabilize the triplets, but it's too soon to tell"

"Understood...oh did you ever figure out why you couldn't have given Barricade painkillers to help his pain level during the labor period?"

"Yes...it was a combination of the experiments done to him and the subtle weakening of his spark during the carrying period that wasn't discovered until it killed him while he was giving birth to his sparklings, because it was that subtle weakening that caused the Energon lines to his spark to finally snap and cause him to slowly bleed to death, as for the painkillers, his body automatically was doing it's best to protect him even as he was slowly dying from carrying his sparklings, it was giving him the best chance to survive this, unfortunately it failed in the end, but I don't blame the sparklings, I blame his captors because they were the ones who started this in the first place"

A week later the sparklings were stable enough to be sent to a foster family on Cybertron who would raise all three and when the time came would inform them of what had happened to their real carrier and the story behind their creation and births. Barricade himself was sent ahead of his sparklings for burial. Those that had known about the first time he was thought dead didn't believe it had happened again but this time the medics on Cybertron did their own checks for a virus faking his death, even knowing what had happened to him had thought that his captors might have done something during their experiments, but this time his death was all too real and permanent. Over time his triplets would grow up into fine adults hearing the story of their carrier and how they came into the world when they were the equivalent of teenagers. They visited his grave and payed their respects, eventually joining the Cybertronian army to defend their home world and Earth just like their carrier had, and while they never fought the ones that had captured their carrier in the first place they did make sure that other species payed for similar crimes with either death if they resisted or harsh prison time if they were captured alive and judged for their crimes on Cybertron (the only reason Earth wasn't as harsh was because they were ill-equipped to take care of long lived prisoners that their Cybertronian allies dealt with on a regular basis, thus the reason they left that to the Cybertronians, though they were still pretty hard whenever a similar crime was punished on Earth)

 _Back in the present time with Korra and the group_

"He'll be missed...I wish...he could have survived"

"So do we Korra"

"At least...at least he didn't die on my birthday at the six months mark"

"True, and even though part of the celebration was spent in the medbay he truly enjoyed that time"

"I was so scared when I initially heard what had happened"

"We know, he'll never see his sparklings grow up, but they will be looked after and when the time comes they will be told about Barricade and their own story as well"

"True...but I will be long gone by that point in time, and you guys might not be around either"

"True, but we will write our stories about him to teach them about their carrier through our own thoughts and eyes"

"Yes...that's a great idea that I fully support"

 _this is during her trip to Britain, but an alternate way the meeting would have gone_

They all quickly go to the Embassy and explain the situation once they were seen

"I understand, I'll see what I can do with the British Government but I'm not making any promises, due to the circumstances I am asking you to remain on Embassy grounds until you hear from me what the exact plan of action is, it's the safest location for you considering the situation right now"

"Sir...about my situation..."

"I know Kerenai, _you_ are going to be under more restrictions than the rest of the group, not only are you ordered to remain on Embassy grounds, but unless you are with a member of the Marines or a different security person you are to remain indoors at all times and...I am going to have to temporarily confiscate your bags"

"How long sir?"

"A few hours at most hopefully, but might take longer depending on...issues that you are already aware of"

"Now wait just a minute! I can't allow a child to be stuck indoors all day when there's no medical reason for such a restriction"

"It's not a medical restriction, it's a safety restriction, one I've lived in the shadow of for a very long time now, we've only been lucky that it hasn't been needed until now"

"Indeed, now then follow security and they'll take you to your temporary quarters while we get everything sorted out"

"Oh...did you get a report about earlier this year?"

"Yes, I heard, I expressed my condolences to them when the news reached me...two months after it happened"

"Uh...I'll need to talk to some people about that then, you should have been informed a week after the incident _at the latest_ , because even with this being an allied country and relatively peaceful..."

"Peace can be short lived and it would have affected things drastically if it was needed"

"Exactly, how did you know it was two months afterwords anyways?"

"I had my aid check the date of the actual announcement, was definitely miffed that it was two months late for me"

"I don't doubt it"

"Now then, you need to go with the group"

"I know"

 _This is the alternate conversation of what Ratchet does while Korra is stuck in Britain it's after they watch a video tape_

"This paints a full picture, why didn't you explain in the first place?"

"Sorry, forgot that you wouldn't have gotten a full picture"

"By the way, did you get our gifts?"

"Yes I did, thanks for sending them, even if you weren't sure they would actually get to me"

"Oh we knew they would get to you, we just weren't sure if they would get to you in time"

"Oh...you used a complicated route to get them to me because while flying has been banned the entire time the boarder has opened up occasionally to train and boat traffic, mostly boat traffic for supplies"

"Exactly"

"I just wish..."

"So do we Korra, so do we"

"Oh by the way I've given everyone except for Mirage who left on his mission before I could complete my work modifications which will prevent anyone else from carrying a sparkling, this means you won't risk losing a family member again to them giving birth, at least if you aren't a female I've given the modifications, I even made it so that had he survived he would have been able to continue feeding his children until they were completely weened from him"

"That's good to hear, I hated losing Barricade to his having children the same way human females do"

"So did I, it's why I worked so hard on that project"

"Well school starts back up soon so it's time for you to get back into your routine"

"Right"

 _Alternate ending to Mirage's rescue and own carrying period_

When Mirage was finally rescued, they discovered that he himself had been experimented on and had already carried five sparklings to term and delivered them pretty much by himself, he was also carrying two more at the time of his rescue meaning he would ultimately carry seven sparklings in total. He told them the fact that his carrying period would be exactly like Barricade's had been, down to the fact that he would be delivering his sparklings the same way

"Mirage...this is going to sound odd but...do you have Energon sacs in your chest?"

"Yes and no...I do have them but they don't start filling up with Energon until about a month and a half before I deliver my sparklings, and they don't actually activate until about two weeks before I give birth to the sparklings"

"How did you discover the sacs?"

"The hard way, the first time I was carrying it was twins, my captors were only by my side long enough to make sure that I had delivered my sparklings and would survive and then left me to fend for myself. My twins almost died from the fact that I had no idea how I was going to feed them initially since I was only ever given adult grade Energon. The _only_ reason I found out about the sacs was because two days after I delivered my sparklings I finally decided to open my chest plate to relieve the pressure I had been feeling since I had delivered my twins...they were so weak by that point that I honestly thought I would lose them. Anyways when I opened my chest plate I looked in a mirror that my captors had tortured me with for two months to make me see my declining condition and saw the sacs. I immediately put my sparklings to my chest hoping that they would know what to do. Fortunately they did somehow know that they were to take the Energon from the sacs by sucking on them. Their responses were weak at first, but over the next two weeks they gained their strength and eventually I no longer feared that I would lose them. My next three carrying periods were single children each time, and just like the first time my captors barely did anything when it came time for me to deliver my sparklings, not even giving me painkillers, all four times all they basically did was catch the sparklings as they came out of my body, waited a few hours to ensure that I would live and then left me to fend for myself"

"Anything else you think we should be aware of?"

"Yes actually...each time I carried and delivered my sparklings I seemed to take longer to recover from the sheer exhaustion I felt from the delivery process, my captors never did anything about it"

The rescue team revealed the notes they had retrieved which stated what Mirage had told the medics was true, he was weaker every time he delivered the sparklings, what Mirage hadn't known was that his captors had done tests and noted his exhaustion theorizing that eventually Mirage would have died during the carrying period, but they hadn't cared much for Mirage's health at all, that much was clear. The plan had been to deliver his twins by c-section when the time came but the twins had other ideas because Mirage went into labor and had proceeded too far for anything other than an emergency c-section by the time he made it to the medbay

"It's too late for a normal c-section, he's already dilated four centimeters"

"Than we'll simply have to keep a close eye on him...I am _not_ losing him like I lost Barricade...not if I can help it"

"Ratchet...need painkillers"

"Okay, it's actually safe for you to have painkillers unlike Barricade for some reason"

Twenty minutes later Mirage was fully dilated

"Okay Mirage...as soon as your body tells you to I want you to start pushing"

Mirage delivers his twins but is unable to stay awake long enough to actually give them their first feeding. He stayed unconscious for seven hours but does wake up, weak but he was awake.

"Ratchet...can I feed my sparklings now?"

"Yes, you may"

Halfway through the feeding though Mirage's optics suddenly went wide

"Guys...something's wrong...I'm going to fade...someone take the twins before...I...drop...them"

First Aid and Perceptor, who had been there to talk to Mirage about how he wanted his quarters, caught the sparklings before Mirage dropped them. After that First Aid and Ratchet worked furiously to stabilize Mirage long enough for emergency surgery. Once there they discovered that Mirage had torn lines in his abdomen giving birth to his twins, once that problem had been taken care of Ratchet performed the same procedure he had performed on everyone else preventing him from carrying sparklings ever again He would remain weak for a solid month before slowly regaining his strength, Mirage fed his sparklings himself for only six months due to the experiments done to Mirage before his first ever carrying period, his sparklings still needed special Energon but had to learn how to take it from a cube before they were truly ready. This was because his captors had forced his children to develop more quickly whenever Mirage was drugged unconscious after his carrying period and as such they deliberately messed with Mirage's systems so that he was only able to produce Energon for his sparklings for the first six months of their lives. Ratchet was livid after that discovery but there was nothing to be done about it. As for his youngest twins they developed slightly slower than their older siblings, but even though they weren't experimented on their first six months of their lives like their siblings they still developed faster than most sparklings since the experiments done on Mirage had done something to his sparklings very codes that had them develop faster, even without intervention on the part of the captors. As for Ratchet and his procedure he had created, all male sparklings were given the procedure the moment they became adults, they only missed one male due to the fact that they had been abducted when they were still a youngling and by the time they had been rescued it was already too late. The Cybertronian had been discovered to already be carrying a sparkling and had been for five months. The carrier would ultimately die during labor, forcing the medics to deliver his sparkling by emergency c-section in order to try and save it's life since they were unable to save it's carrier's life despite their best attempts

"It's done, the sparkling has been safely delivered"

"And the carrier?"

"Dead...they died during labor Prime, we...we couldn't save him, we failed just like with Barricade all those years ago"

"How long were they in labor?"

"Five hours, they died only minutes before they would have given birth to their sparkling"

 _One hour earlier_

"You're doing great, just a little longer and you'll have your sparkling"

"Not...going...to...make...it...fading...fast"

"No, no you'll make it, I know you will"

"Lies...can...feel...it...I'm...dying"

Right after those words the carrier crashed just as hard as Barricade had crashed all those years earlier only hours after he had given birth to his triplets

"We need to get the sparkling out, _now_!"

The medics do an emergency c-section and while the sparkling was taken away for it's checks the rest of the medics worked frantically to bring the carrier back, unfortunately just like with Barricade they were unable to do so and were forced to admit defeat after only an hour

"I'll be the ones to tell the Primes and Galvatron about this...do what you can for the sparkling, but...but don't be surprised if it doesn't make it to the safety point"

"Shall we also see how much longer it would have been before he would have safely delivered his sparkling had his spark held out?"

"No...no I already know the answer"

 _Present_

"How long before the sparkling would have been delivered, and how is the sparkling anyways?"

"Five minutes...if he could have held on for five minutes he would have given birth to his sparkling himself, there's even a chance that had they still died they would have at least seen their sparkling for themselves one time very briefly. As for the sparkling it's in critical condition we think it's actually in worse condition than Barricade's triplets had been when we lost Barricade all those years ago"

"Keep us updated on the sparkling's condition"

"Will do"

Two days later though the medics were forced to declare the sparkling deceased

"It didn't make it Prime...the sparkling is gone"

"Understood...Barricade's triplets know what's happened as well, they...wish to name the sparkling in the place of it's carrier and take care of both their funerals"

"Of course...it's only right considering..."

"Considering the deep connection they have to this event"

"Prime you should know it's just like Barricade all those years ago, carrying to term and giving birth to their sparklings is what killed both Barricade and Silverlight, the only difference is that Barricade was unknowingly to us carrying triplets while Silverlight only had the one...as for why Silverlight died while still in labor and Barricade didn't crash until four and a half hours later...it might simply be the difference between their captors and the experiments done to them, but I can't conclude that for sure"

"And the sparkling?"

"Bond breaking...you know as well as I that even with all the right conditions a sparkling doesn't always survive the breaking of the carrier bond"

"True, you did your best though"

"Yes...we did"


End file.
